Written Answers Friday 26 September 2008

Scottish Executive

Agriculture

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications to the Land Managers Options mechanism have been received and how many have been (a) approved and (b) rejected, broken down by (i) option and (ii) size of allowance allocated, also showing percentages.

Richard Lochhead: Three-thousand, nine hundred and seventy applications to the Land Managers Options (LMOs) mechanism have been received. The breakdown by number and value and percentage of total by option is as follows. (Please note that the total by option exceeds the total number of applications because each application may cover several options).

  

 Option
 Number of Applications
 Value
 % of Total Value of All Options


 Biodiversity cropping in-bye
 10
£1,900
 0.04%


 Business Audit
 112
£16,000
 0.33%


 Conservation headlands 
 9
£2,300
 0.05%


 Linear feature Dykes
 137
£37,000
 0.77%


 Linear features Hedges
 39
£3,900
 0.08%


 Modernisation through electronic data management- forestry
 11
£9,600
 0.20%


 Modernisation through electronic data management- agriculture
 891
£788,000
 16.41%


 Grass margins and Beetlebanks
 39
£27,500
 0.57%


 Improving Access
 105
£247,000
 5.14%


 Improving rush pasture
 404
£333,000
 6.93%


 Management of archaeological or historic sites
 28
£25,000
 0.52%


 Management of moorland
 25
£34,000
 0.71%


 Nutrient management
 69
£15,000
 0.31%


 Membership of quality assurance scheme
 528
£51,000
 1.06%


 Retention of winter stubbles
 121
£121,000
 2.51%


 Summer cattle grazing
 88
£37,000
 0.76%


 Small woodland creation 
 157
£251,000
 5.22%


 Access creation for forest management
 38
£102,000
 2.12%


 Management of tree stocks for seed production 
 1
£2,000
 0.04%


 Management of small woodland
 56
£21,000
 0.44%


 Training
 1,062
£464,000
 9.66%


 Management of rural vernacular buildings
 1,155
£2,098,000
 43.67%


 Wild bird seed /unharvested crops
 189
£118,000
 2.46%


 
 
£4,803,000
 



  LMOs is a non-discretionary scheme and there is thus no approval process. Land managers apply and are paid provided they comply with the LMO rules. Eleven applications were rejected (0.28%) mainly because they were not submitted by the deadline. An applicant’s maximum allowance is calculated according to the amount of land they have. The total available maximum allowances for LMOs (after deducting the amount used for existing LMCMS commitments) for those individuals who applied was around £7,600,000. The total applied for was £4,803,000, which is 63.27% of the total they could have chosen to apply for.

Agriculture

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the total funds held under the Land Managers Options mechanism has been allocated.

Richard Lochhead: Funds are not allocated specifically to Land Managers Options (LMOs) and spend will be dependent on uptake. Land Managers Options is one of a number of delivery mechanisms in the Scotland Rural Development Programme and is non-competitive. However, spending across the other delivery mechanisms could influence spending under LMOs.

Agriculture

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made on the review of the EU agricultural subsidies appeals procedure.

Richard Lochhead: The review panel has met with representatives of the agricultural industry in Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland as well as a number of representatives from European farming unions. It also held discussions with Scottish Government officials and their counterparts in other UK administrations and Ireland.

  In addition it undertook a survey of individual farmers in Scotland who had used the appeals process to help it identify areas of concern and where improvements might be made.

  The panel is currently finalising its report and I expect to receive its findings within the next two to three weeks.

Agriculture

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-8538 by Richard Lochhead on 24 January 2008, whether the independent panel set up to review the EU agricultural subsidies appeals process has reported to ministers and, if so, what the report’s findings were and when the Scottish Government will take action on the recommendations.

Richard Lochhead: The EU agricultural subsidies appeals review panel is due to report to me in the next two to three weeks. I will make a further statement once its findings have been fully considered.

Agriculture

Liam McArthur (Orkney) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what studies have been carried out into the agricultural subsidies appeals system operating in Ireland, given that statistics show that farmers are four times more likely to be successful in their appeal, a decision is reached twice as quickly and penalties, when they are imposed, are on average five times lower than in Scotland.

Richard Lochhead: As part of its consultation, the agricultural subsidies appeals review panel met with Irish government officials and representatives of the Irish agricultural industry to discuss how the appeals procedure operated in Ireland.

  It will be up to the panel to recommend whether or not any of the measures used in Ireland should be adopted in Scotland when it submits its findings to me.

Asbestos

Bill Kidd (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a list of buildings with levels of asbestos that pose a risk to people, broken down by local authority area.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government does not hold information on the presence of asbestos in public or other buildings. The presence of asbestos in buildings does not of itself present a risk to health. The risk arises if fibres are released and inhaled. The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2006 place a duty on those who have the responsibility for building maintenance and repair to manage the risk from asbestos. It also includes the requirement to prepare a plan setting out in detail how the risks from these materials will be managed; take the necessary steps to put the plan into action; periodically review and monitor it and the arrangements for acting on it so that the plan remains relevant and up-to-date, and provide information on the location and condition of the materials to anyone who is liable to work on or disturb them.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines there are for procurators fiscal in relation to the translation into English of evidence in other languages.

Frank Mulholland QC: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has provided guidance to procurators fiscal on commissioning translations. Where translation is required an appropriate translation agency will be instructed. The guidance instructs that, where possible, a translation agency provides translators who hold a valid certificate from Disclosure Scotland at Standard level and who hold relevant qualifications.

  On instruction, translators are required to sign a "Code of Conduct" which sets out the standards expected when accepting interpreting and translation assignments from COPFS.

Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines there are for procurators fiscal in relation to the independent scrutiny of the translation into English of evidence in other languages.

Frank Mulholland QC: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has provided guidance to procurators fiscal on commissioning translations. Where translation is required an appropriate translation agency will be instructed. The guidance instructs that, where possible, a translation agency provides translators who hold a valid certificate from Disclosure Scotland at Standard level and who hold relevant qualifications.

  On instruction, translators are required to sign a "Code of Conduct" which sets out the standards expected when accepting interpreting and translation assignments from COPFS.

  As a matter of routine, a copy of the translated document is provided to the defence who will consider whether the translation of the document should be reviewed by an independent party.

Environment

Hugh O'Donnell (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made, along with UK Government departments, to the European Union in favour of the EU’s definition of "environment" being extended to include historical, archaeological and other landscape features.

Linda Fabiani: We have made no representations to the European Union on this issue so far. I understand that this question has been raised in the context of the Scottish Government’s consultation on the Future implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy in Scotland. The consultation closed on 5 September 2008. Around 50 responses were received and are currently being analysed. It would not therefore be appropriate to pre-empt the outcome of the consultation before the responses have been analysed.

Freight

John Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much public subsidy John G Russell (Transport) Ltd received from 1999 to 2007.

Stewart Stevenson: John G Russell (Transport) Ltd received from 1999 to 2007 Freight Facilities Grant support of £1,211,538 from the Scottish Government and Company Neutral Revenue Support Grant of £405,545 from the UK Department for Transport for moving freight from road to rail.

Fuel Costs

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action was taken to ensure that fuel retailers avoided increasing prices during the two-day strike at the Grangemouth refinery in April 2008.

Jim Mather: The matter of fuel prices is reserved. But throughout the INEOS strike and the subsequent Suckling/Hoyer dispute, Scottish ministers discouraged petrol retailers from putting up prices unnecessarily. In addition, Scottish ministers encouraged the public to report instances of suspected profiteering to the appropriate competition authorities.

Fuel Costs

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what evidence was gathered of fuel retailers increasing prices during the two-day strike at the Grangemouth refinery in April 2008 and what action was taken on this evidence.

Jim Mather: The Scottish Government does not hold data regarding fuel prices as this matter is reserved. Competition authorities, such as the Office of Fair Trading, routinely investigate allegations of price fixing, anti-competitive agreements and abuse of any dominant market position.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15799 by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2008, who is responsible for agreeing the "upper levels to alert local staff of an excess of new cases over a period".

Nicola Sturgeon: It is for members of the local Infection Control Team to determine if a trigger point has been reached by using statistical process control methods. Trigger levels are based on norms calculated from historical data for each site under study, and are specific for each individual site.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15802 by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 September 2008, how many of the 73 staff from the Vale of Leven Hospital who registered for cleanliness champion training have received that training and when.

Nicola Sturgeon: I am advised by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that of the 73 staff who registered since May 2007 for the cleanliness champions programme, a total of 23 have now completed it. It is not possible to specify precisely when each member of staff completed their training as this will depend on when the staff member enrolled, but the programme takes approximately 20 hours to complete.

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15681 by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 September 2008, what services are recommended for withdrawal or are otherwise reduced as a consequence of the proposed removal of anaesthetic services in the Vale of Leven Hospital.

Nicola Sturgeon: I have nothing further to add to my answer to question S3W-15681. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Hospital-Acquired Infection

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15691 by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 September 2008, how many inpatient beds will be available at the Vale of Leven Hospital if NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s vision for the hospital is implemented.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-15681 on 10 September 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Housing

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15726 by Stewart Maxwell on 17 September 2008, how much of the additional Scottish Government spending in 2008-09 will be allocated to the Homeowners’ Support Fund.

Stewart Maxwell: We have no plans to allocate any of the accelerated funding to the Homeowners Support Fund. At the end of June 2008, we announced a package of major reforms, which included £25 million between 2008-10 to support the Homeowners Support Fund.

Housing

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15726 by Stewart Maxwell on 17 September 2008, how much of the additional Scottish Government spending on housing in 2008-09 will be allocated to support for first-time buyers.

Stewart Maxwell: From the accelerated funding we are planning to prioritise bringing forward new construction but will also spend on off the shelf units and land acquisitions for future development. Some of the units provided or to be developed will be for the Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT). Actual spend allocations are not available as we will review opportunities on a regular basis over the coming months and allocate funds to specific projects rather than announcing geographic allocations, so that best strategic fit and value for money can be assured.

Housing

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the announcement by the First Minister on 19 August 2008 that up to £100 million is being brought forward in the Affordable Housing Investment Programme from 2010-11, when the "spend profile and allocation" of that investment will be finalised.

Stewart Maxwell: From the accelerated funding we are planning to prioritise bringing forward new construction but will also spend on off the shelf units and land acquisitions where it is strategically sensible and offers value for money. We will review opportunities on a regular basis over the coming months and allocate funds to specific projects rather than announcing general geographic allocations, so that best strategic fit and value for money can be assured.

NHS Staff

James Kelly (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many perfusionists were employed in the NHS in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07, (c) 2007-08 and (d) 2008-09.

Shona Robison: This information is not held centrally. The planning of the workforce, including healthcare scientists, is a matter for NHS boards who are responsible for planning services in their area based on need.

NHS Staff

James Kelly (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs were of securing the services of perfusionists not employed by the NHS in (a) 2005-06, (b) 2006-07, (c) 2007-08 and (d) 2008-09.

Shona Robison: The information requested is not centrally held. The costs associated with NHS-employed or non-NHS perfusionists are not separately identifiable. The planning of the workforce, including healthcare scientists, is a matter for NHS boards who are responsible for planning affordable and sustainable services in their area based on need.

Public Private Partnerships

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the public sector comparator to show whether procuring the Borders Railway through the PPP/DBFM model offers better value for money than public sector delivery.

Stewart Stevenson: The Borders Railway will be treated and reported in a similar manner to public private partnership projects. The outline business case currently being developed will not be published at this stage, as the commercial information contained within would prejudice the commercial interests of the Scottish Government in achieving value for money for Scotland. A version of the business case will be made available following contract award.

Roads

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the level of broken cat’s eyes on the trunk road network.

Stewart Stevenson: The condition of the road studs (commonly known as cat’s eyes) is assessed every six months. The reflectivity is inspected at intervals of two weeks or monthly, dependent on the season. In addition, weekly safety inspections can identify defective road studs requiring repair.

Roads

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on the replacement of cat’s eyes on the trunk road network in each year since 1999.

Stewart Stevenson: Annual costs of replacement of road studs (commonly known as cat’s eyes) are not readily available. However, more than £1.8 million has been spent on the replacement of road studs since records began in April 2001. This cost does not include replacement of road studs as part of maintenance or improvement works.

Scottish Cabinet

Hugh O'Donnell (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15794 by Bruce Crawford on 17 September 2008, whether it will publish the information sought in that question when it has received all of the invoices relating to the summer Cabinet programme.

Bruce Crawford: Once all invoices relating to the summer Cabinet programme have been received, the cost of the programme will be made available.

State Hospital Carstairs

Margaret Curran (Glasgow Baillieston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to unblock the apparent impasse between the State Hospital in Carstairs and NHS Fife in relation to the care of the remaining female patient in the State Hospital.

Shona Robison: The State Hospital and NHS Fife are working together to ensure a structured, supported move for the patient. The transfer will only take place when it is clinically appropriate and safe to do so.

  There is no impasse between the State Hospital and NHS Fife.

State Hospital Carstairs

Margaret Curran (Glasgow Baillieston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take immediate action to unblock the apparent impasse between the State Hospital in Carstairs and NHS Fife in relation to the care of the remaining female patient in the State Hospital, in light of the implications for the NHS budget.

Shona Robison: Patients only transfer between hospitals and other services when it is clinically appropriate and safe to do so. Discharge planning will take into account all circumstances to ensure a structured supported move.

  There is no impasse between the State Hospital and NHS Fife.

Correction

The reply to question S3W-15566 which was originally answered on 9 September 2008, has been corrected: see page 4269 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-08/wa0922.